Lost rant (1 0 0 1 1 1 0)

There once was a legend that was told to me when I was but a wee lad. A legend of a rant to fierce and fiery that it made the mighty Zeus cry salty tears into his instant coffee. But the rant was lost...
It told the tale of a horrible Friday, of a guy, just a regular guy, in Korea, and horrible abuses he was made to suffer one Friday, just a regular Friday, at an elementary school (just a regular elementary school). Of children so loud and prone to throwing things that this "regular guy" was himself thrown into a pit of brooding so deep, producing a rant so venomous that it melted the internet connection and was lost forever.
If you close your eyes and listen to the wind, you can still hear it's gentle fierceness being whisked away into cyberspace...
1...0...0...1...1...1...0...

Friday was horrible. I was almost ready to cash out.
BUT! I wrote it down, felt better, and the internet did it's magical losing thing before I could publish it and offend millions.
BUT! I solved the problem of the horrible harassment and yelling at the elementary school at lunch. The key is to eat with the special-ed kids. It was great. They were quiet, they were polite, and they smiled and were genuinely friendly. It was a great relief after a really bad morning, and nice before heading back into it for the afternoon.
The problem is that I stopped feeling like a person... it's hard to describe, but often times we aren't really seen as people here, but some kind of non-thinking plaything to the kids, and some sort of novelty item that has no idea what is going on around it to adults. But we do have ideas. Sometimes.
Friday got better though. I performed at the girls' school talent show. I didn't get a chance to learn anything new from your suggestions, unfortunately, because I was sick. I just went with the tried and true "Such a Simple Way" and "Happy Together" combo. It went very well, I am happy to report.
Later that night, after a delicious dinner of garlic smashed potatoes and wine-fried chicken, we got a call from a teacher at the girls' high school (Sylvia) who invited us out to meet the other foreigner in town, who we didn't even know existed! He teaches a few towns over. He's 38, has been teaching for 13 years, and is married to a Korean woman he met while teaching english in Italy. Very "worldly". We met at a restaurant on the other side of town (in a yet unexplored area) and he was pretty cool. I spotted the foreigner before I even saw his face, because he was wearing a wool sweater. A kindred spirit in the country of tracksuits.
He was pretty cool. His little boy was the cutest little boy ever. Recovering from a cold and having already hit the cooking wine, I launched into the angry rant that had been saved from the internet. May not have been the best first impression. But, oh well. We can't help but hit it off being three white peas in this huge pod. His wife was not home, which was too bad, but he seemed very nice, and hopefully we will get the chance to meet again.
Saturady was very relaxed. A lot of sitting around. Some bananas and melted chocolate bars. Deliciousness. Some walking out to the town's festival and getting mobbed by my students, which was more fun with Jessie there. We ate meat on a stick, and took a picture of some of my elementary students.
Today, I was still feeling a little stir-crazy, so I decided to head out to Kwangju again, which seemed like apretty cool place during the illicit Wednesday adventure.
That of course was only after we carved up a jack-o-lantern and I fried up the seeds for later (secret) eating. Jessie stayed home and I headed for the bus station with a very important goal in mind. Find a jean jacket.
Why a jean jacket? I'm not sure. It was a bit of a whim, but it seems necessary. My jacket is very nice, but not so good for wearing with jeans. It's a khakis or better jacket, fine for school, if I dress up for a day (I work in the country) but not so good to just wear to the store with runners and torn jeans. So... the search was on.
I went to the big department store right beside the bus station first, but that was a no-go. It was SO trendy and expensive. It would have been a great place to go if I wanted a four-hundred dollar Polo Ralph Lauren Jean Jacket with a fur-lined collar. But...
Oh Value Village, you have ruined me! You've turned me into a person who refuses to pay more than eight dollars for a winter jacket!
The one saving grace was that the expensive store had a Starbucks, so I had my first latte in two months. Well, almost three. They were a treat even in Canada.
I went to the info booth in the bus station, explained that I was cheap, and got directions to an outlet mall. Still way too expensive. But I found my new favourite place on earth. A store called "Basic House". They have a "line" of clothes there called "Experienced" that all say Hendrix on them somewhere, and are "inspired" by Woodstock fashions. They have the greatest sweaters in the world. No jean jackets, but I did manage to find a very nice and manly sweater-coat. They had some jackets too, but unfortunately I am a little too barrel shaped to fit into Korean jackets. Unless that puckered open between buttons look comes back.
Somehow I managed to only buy the sweater coat, even though they had several sweaters that nearly made me pee my pants. I don't know how to describe the relief. I am a sweater guy, in the same way that some people are a "butt-guy" or a "breast-guy". It sounds sick and twisted, and it is. But I love sweaters. Especially ones whose colours can be described as "burnt orange". And this was the first store I have even seen here that had sweaters.

I have a problem.

So, no jean jacket. But I managed to find peanut butter, barbecue sauce, and candles for the jack-o-lantern, which were my other "quest-items". So, go me.
I wound up sitting in the back seat of the bus on the way home, which was really cool, because it is elevated above the rest of the bus, and it bounces like crazy. It was like a really cheap amusement park. On the way out of Kwangju, two of my girls' school students got on and sat beside me, and tried to talk to me.
"Very sing guitar!!!" they yelled, which I hope meant they liked my performance at the talent show. They tried to talk more, but they wound up having to text or phone a friend for help with almost every second word. I eventually got out of it that they went to a movie, a romantic comedy, and had done some shopping. They were surprised that I went shopping without Jessica, even she was "Berry Beautipull".

So it was a good weekend. I think it is time to call it quits for today. Bye everyone!